Indigo and Shizuko Kuroha

Walking into the "room" that showcased the quilts and wearable art of Shizuko Kuroha, I felt welcomed into a world of peace and harmony. There is a quiet elegance to her work. Although her colour palette revolves mainly around indigos, it is astonishing to see the variety of shades that can be obtained from the one basic colour. Her quilts have a fluidity and 3-D quality to them that is obtained by having mastered the palette of indigo.

If I may take a quote from her book, "Indigo & Sarasa", (published by "Quiltmania Magazine"), "What counts is the blend of these fabrics, how they co-exist, if they are in harmony." Shizuko Kuroha has found the way to express this in her work.

The photos in order are:

- Shizuko Kuroha inscribing a book I bought for my daughter

- A few of her quilts on display

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Boutis: Traditional French Needlework

" Piqûre de Marseilles" or "Boutis" is a traditional French hand stitched and corded needlework technique, which uses embroidery stitches to create intricate channels that will later be stuffed with yarn, thereby creating a raised design with three layers. It's origins, and it's name, can be traced to the port of Marseilles in southern France to the 15th century. Traditional boutis was a technique invented to embellish otherwise plain white cotton with intricately patterned channels that would later be stuffed with a plump white yarn to give it relief. The resulting corded whitework created an elegant, embossed textile that was much sought after. Not only was it aesthetically appealing, but it also provided warmth and absorbency, so could be used for bed coverings, toilette linens (like towels), clothing items, home decor, etc. The first two photos below are from the collection of Mme. Monique Alphand, a well known French expert and collector of antique t

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Blocking and Squaring Boutis

The door of her cage has been opened. She is free to fly off and find her destiny. After many months of hand stitching and then many more months of cording, my little "colibri" is ready to set off on her own. As this was my first attempt at designing so large a boutis piece, it was a learning curve. All of the tight swirls, curls and circles are a great deal more difficult and time consuming to cord then are the longer more gentle channels. Maintaining an even tension is absolutely necessary throughout the process, so patience comes in very handy when doing the cording. The process of stitching and cording a work of boutis subjects the fabric to a lot of handling and manipulation that can distort the design. For this reason, once all of the stitching and cording is complete, the boutis must be washed, blocked and squared. The first step of washing is to remove all traces of the marking pencil as well as any soil that may have collected over the many months of working w

Seams French

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